Consequences of Atheism Part 3 (Worthless Minds) – Romans 1:28 – 32

Introduction

In our previous message, we learned that once you suppress the truth, you then refuse to honor God and give thanks to Him, then you start worshipping false gods, which include self worship, then God hands you over to be fully controlled by the desires of your heart, then that leads to sexual immorality, which among others leads to homosexuality. In this message, we will see that God not only gave them over to be fully controlled by the desires of their hearts but, He also gave them over to a worthless mind to do what is not supposed to be done.

God gave them over to a debased mind

Romans 1:28-32 (ESV Strong’s)

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

In the above passage, we see that God not only gave over those who refuse to honor Him as God and give thanks to Him, to be fully controlled by the desires of their hearts but, He also gave them over to a debased mind to do what is not supposed to be done. A debased mind means a worthless mind. God gave them over because they did not see it fit to acknowledge God. They did not see fit to recognize Him as God, and therefore honor Him and give thanks to Him. For this, God gave them over to their own worthless minds which led them to do what is not supposed to be done. Remember that to be given up means to be handed over to be under the control of something, in this case, God handed them over to be under the control of their worthless minds, all because they refused to recognize God for who He is.

Once God handed them over to be controlled by their worthless minds, this led them to be filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness and malice. Unrighteousness means injustice, evil means a state or condition of a lack of moral or social values, covetousness means the state of desiring to have more than one’s due, that is to be greedy, and malice means a mean spirited or vicious attitude or disposition. Therefore when God handed them over to be under the control of their worthless minds for refusing to recognize Him as God, it led them to be filled with all manner of injustices, immorality, greed and mean spiritedness or vicious attitude.

Then in verses 29(b) – 31, Paul lists some of the sins that results from people who are filled with all manner of injustices, immorality, greed and mean spiritedness or vicious attitude. Paul says: “29(b) They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.“. Paul is not saying that all those who are handed over to be under the control of their worthless minds do all these things but, each person will do one or more or these. Paul is also not trying to list all of the sins but a representative sample.

Willful Sinning

In verse 32, Paul says these people who have been handed over to be under the control of their worthless minds, do the above sins that he has listed, despite knowing God’s decrees that, those who practice these sins die. Therefore these people sin willfully and not out of ignorance. Not only do they continue to sin willfully but, they give approval to those who also commit these sins.

Conclusion

What have we learned. We have learned that God hands people over who refuse to recognize Him as God, He hands them over to be under the control of their worthless minds. This leads them to be filled with all manner of injustices, immorality, greed and mean spiritedness or vicious attitude. It leads them not only to sin willfully but to also give approval to those who also are sinning willfully.

Summary of Romans 1:18-32

Paul has told us that there is no excuse for not knowing God and that every single human being knows God. Therefore atheism is a lie because it is a suppression of the truth in unrighteousness. This is because God has revealed Himself, that is, His eternal power and divine nature to all in creation. Paul has also told us that those who refuse to Honor God and give thanks to Him, and those who refuse to acknowledge Him as God, God gives them over to be under the control of their shameful desires and worthless minds respectively. That leads them to sexual immorality and to be filled with all manner of injustices, immorality, greed and mean spiritedness or vicious attitude. Not only do they sin willfully but they give approval to others who also sin willfully like them.

Therefore if you currently refuse to Honor God and give thanks to Him, and are currently refusing to recognize Him as God, repent or face God’s judgement. This is the end of Romans 1.

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